Republicans target weekend absentee ballot returns in Georgia

Republicans are taking aim at Democratic strongholds in Georgia that opened locations this weekend for voters to return their absentee ballots in person. 

The Republican National Committee (RNC) filed a new lawsuit Sunday after a state judge one day prior rejected allegations that deep-blue Fulton County, which includes Atlanta, was violating Georgia’s election law over its extension.

Republicans cite a provision that mandates drop boxes close when in-person early voting, known as advance voting in Georgia, concludes, which it did Friday. 

The new case challenges both Fulton and six other Democratic-leaning counties that have similarly continued to accept hand-delivered absentee ballots through the weekend. 

It was filed in federal court and claims the practice violates the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection and its delegation of elections authority to state legislatures. 

“The county’s actions violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by granting special privileges to voters of those counties in violation of state law, thus arbitrarily and disparately affecting against voters and candidates in other counties,” the lawsuit states. 

The areas being sued include Fulton County and swaths of the Atlanta area that make up much of Democrats’ base in the key swing state: Cobb, DeKalb, Gwinnett and Clayton counties. The other two are Chatham County, which includes the city of Savannah, and Athens-Clarke County.

President Biden won all seven counties in 2020 as he flipped Georgia blue in the presidential race for the first time in nearly three decades. This cycle, the Decision Desk HQ/The Hill election forecast estimates Trump has a 65 percent chance of winning the key battleground.

The announcements to allow people to return absentee ballots in person this weekend and Monday quickly came under fire from the GOP. 

Republicans sued Fulton County late Friday night, leading to a hastily scheduled online hearing the following morning.

Judge Kevin Farmer ruled in favor of the county, which was backed by the Democratic National Committee (DNC). The state law provision at issue did not concern hand delivery of absentee ballots, he said. 

“That refers to drop boxes. There are no drop boxes here. Drop boxes are off the table,” Farmer said. 

Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, said 305 absentee ballots were ultimately returned this weekend during the extension, which will continue Monday. 

Republicans have also criticized some of the counties for initially not letting the party’s poll watchers observe the continued ballot returns. RNC Chair Michael Whatley on Saturday wrote on the social platform X that observers were ultimately allowed inside. 

Alex Kaufman, a Georgia attorney who represents the party, criticized Fulton County officials for announcing the extension just hours before it began. 

“We have poll watchers that we would have had to have gone out. This clearly changes the time and conduct of the election at the last moment,” Kaufman said at Saturday's court hearing.

The dispute over the extension is part of a broader legal battle playing out in key swing states over mail ballots.

The DNC and other groups convinced a Georgia judge to extend the return deadline until Nov. 8, three days after Election Day, for 3,240 absentee voters whose mail ballots weren’t delivered in Cobb County. 

In Pennsylvania, the DNC similarly persuaded a state judge to extend additional options for Erie County voters that experienced mail ballot issues due to a vendor problem. The judge found that 365 voters received duplicate ballots and up to 17,000 others may not have received theirs.

And in Bucks County, a populous area located north of Philadelphia, the Trump campaign won its lawsuit to extend on-demand mail balloting after voters reported long lines and being turned away early on the final day.